Kwarenta: My 8-Hour Ondoy Experience in 40 Txt Messages

My grueling experience yesterday is incomparable with what’s happening with our fellow Filipinos still waiting to be rescued right now. And I’m praying for my friends and family who are still stuck in their homes and on their roofs.

I know most of us lived through our worries yesterday by texting and calling our loved ones. What I have here is a very small part of the millions of text messages sent on September 26, 2009 that clogged even the biggest communication networks in the country. These messages don’t account the whole riot I (and my office mates) experienced. It’s actually just the tip of the iceberg.

Though my phone got soaking wet, fortunately it did not die on me. Here are the messages in my Sent Items texted to different contacts:

Blog Action Day 2008: Luxuries of Poverty

A Problem that Stretches Across Waters

We’ve seen how our countrymen suffer each day here in the cities of Manila because of unemployment, overpopulation and poverty. And we can see Manila Bay as one of the cites where the poor wander to find food, pity, or just plain luck on the sidewalks. As these people watch the sunset, another cold night awaits to resurface and you find them wishing they’re on the other side of the waters. But reality is, what lies beyond the stretches of Manila Bay is not that different.

Episode 40: Baboy sa Checkpoint

Checkpoint? Or Something Else?
Last March 14, 2008, in an unsuspecting afternoon, Ma and I decided to go shopping for groceries at SM Molino – which is just 10 minutes away. But these minutes turned into hours, at least for most people along Molino road, as the PNP put up a “checkpoint” for vehicles on their way to Manila or Alabang. This was the same day as the Anti-Arroyo Youth Rally held by different universities at Liwasang Bonifacio at the height of the ZTE Deal Scandal.  What a (non)coincidence.

Watch as one supposed-to-be-usual checkpoint turn into something else.

UP@100: Capturing 100 UP Moments

Along with a group of UP bloggers, we have come up with a special project for the UP Centennial Month this coming June. It’s called “UP@100: Capturing 100 UP Moments“ – It is a Music Video Project which will compile 100 photos and videos from participants consisting UP alumni and students. It aims to capture 100 unique UP moments from 100 different points of view in the past 100 years of the University’s existence.

We are inviting YOU to join us in this endeavor.

Mechanics: Here’s how to submit an entry

Episode 33: Citizen Patrol – UP Edition

CokskiBlue on TV Patrol World!

NOT. Haha. I’m still in a “recycling” mode because of my uber-heavy workload. So for now, let me show you guys our class report on “Problems in Facilities of Different Colleges in UP Diliman” in my Science, Technology and Society class. My task was to make a video report out of my groupmates’ research and pictures. So by the virtue of cramming, I came up with THIS final product. Hey. They enjoyed it! Methinks.

Episode 31: No Signal

Reminiscence or Warning?

February 25, 2008 – This day is not just another People Power I anniversary. Today, we will witness how the events of 1986 will converge with the present times and how it will influence the people on whether or not to take ‘communal’ action.